Rail transportation is generally recognized as being more economical than truck transportation of bulk commodities, such as aggregates. Large quantities of such commodities can be moved by a small crew at low cost. However, rail transportation frequently loses out in competitive situations because of the cost of unloading, stockpiling, and delivering the commodity to the ultimate destination.
Even though large quantities of bulk material can be transported at low cost from one terminal to another, the burden is placed on the unloading facility to maintain the economics of this method of transportation for the purchaser of the commodity. If the unloading is slow, and the train is therefor delayed for a substantial period of time for the unloading to be accomplished, there is an added investment cost per ton handled for the use of the railroad equipment. One problem in this regard, is that rail transportation is a twenty-four hour operation while many of the industries it serves operate only during daylight hours. Often a train makes good speed from origin to destination, only to be delayed several hours waiting to be unloaded. Each hour or delay adds to the transportation cost as much as an additional 25 to 50 miles of haul.
To accommodate these problems, the present inventor developed a self-unloading train for bulk commodities. This invention was patented as U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,356, issued on May 15, 1990, and entitled "Self-Unloading Train for Bulk Commodities." The self-unloading train overcomes many of the above-discussed disadvantages of rail transportation for bulk materials by utilizing a plurality of hopper cars and a discharge car. This train is pulled by a conventional locomotive. Each of the hopper cars include several hoppers having bottom discharge openings and associated gates for discharging onto an endless belt conveyer which runs the entire length of the train. The discharge car includes a transfer conveyer which receives the material from the train conveyer and is movable on the trailer car to transfer the material to a selected point relative to the train. When the self-unloading train moves along a straight section of track, the material may be deposited in a windrow alongside the track by the transfer conveyer. Alternatively, the unit train may be unloaded while stationary, with the transfer conveyer discharging onto a portable stacking conveyer, for example, which will enable the deposit of material in piles thirty feet high and at least forty feet away from the track, for example. As such, the self-unloading train of this invention has achieved a large number of advantages not fond in conventional unit train design.
Another advantage of this self-unloading train is the fact that the train can unload immediately upon arrival at the destination and immediately depart back to the source for another load. The most intensely used pieces of railroad equipment, at present, are the rotary dumping hopper cars used in unit train coal service. Under ideal conditions, these coal trains can be unloaded in rotary dumping sites as fast or possibly faster than the self-unloading train. However, these rotary dumping facilities and the associated conveyer and stacking equipment needed to make them operate effectively cost millions of dollars, generally more than the cost of the coal trains that they service. Also, these rotary dumping hopper cars are restricted to one location for their entire working lives.
The out-of-pocket or direct costs associated with rail transportation are primarily fuel, labor, and recovery of or amortization of capital investment. Of these three, fuel is the only true direct cost in that it is being consumed only when the train is in motion, either loaded or unloaded.
Labor is somewhere in between indirect and direct costs. From a long term view, trainmen will be hired or laid off when the management can see for months ahead that traffic will be either heavy or light. However for an individual train, a crew is called to start at certain times of the day with the expectation that they will work a certain number of hours, either eight, ten, or twelve hours. With this knowledge in mind, the crew works with a plan to move the train a certain number of miles. For travelling more than a hundred miles, the crew receives extra money, but for less than a hundred miles, they are paid by the hour. Therefore, any delay in operating the train generally results in a higher labor cost and expediting the movement results in a lower labor cost.
Amortization of equipment, both rolling and fixed, is a truly fixed cost. There is very little difference between the maintenance required on a heavily used section of track compared with a lightly used section of track. Time and weather cause deterioration that must be corrected and paid for, regardless of the amount of traffic moved. Therefore, the amortization cost of the railway and structures is inversely proportional to the revenue-ton miles carried.
Operational experience with the first self-unloading trains, of the above-described patent application, have indicated that the maintenance cost is very light, probably only about 10% of the amortization cost. It has been shown that 1000 ton trains, rented for months at a time, at a rate of $1,300 per calendar day, have a maintenance cost of about $100 per day or about one-eighth of the amortization cost. Again, this shows that the cost per revenue ton mile is inversely proportional to the rate of utilization.
Ordinary railroad equipment, particularly individual cars, spend most of their lives sitting still. Although the overall average train speed is 25 or 30 miles per hour, the average speed of an individual car is only 50 miles per day, or approximately two miles per hour. From this, it can be seen that railroad cars spend a large part of their entire life sitting still, waiting to be loaded or unloaded. To some extent, the same thing is true of trains in general.
Even though the railroads have a 3-to-1 advantage in fuel economy and a 20 or 50-to-1 in labor economy, the rates per revenue-ton mile are roughly comparable. This is because of the low utilization of railroad equipment.
The invention of the self-unloading train, which consists of eleven hopper cars that carry a total of 1000 tons of bulk material, plus a discharge car carrying the prime mover and the lateral conveyer, can be pulled by one 1700 to 2000 horsepower locomotive. Unfortunately, most of the rules of railroads require that the locomotive travel on the head end of the train.
"Y's" or loops where a train can change directions end-for-end are not common. Frequently, on short hauls, the type of work the self-unloading train most commonly encounters, there is a necessity for the engine to run around the train. Although the train may be able to unload in a short time on a main line track, before it can go back to the source for another load, must be moved to some location where there is passing track where the engine can disconnect and run around to the other end. Both getting to an appropriate passing track and making the connection requires time. In addition, time is needlessly wasted in reestablishing the brake airlines and testing the brakes. This type of complicated operation can seldom be done in less than 15 minutes.
Since the self-unloading train is frequently used on short hauls where two, three, or four trips may be made in a single shift, this wasted time can easily be the difference between making three trips in a day or four trips in a day. Since the fuel cost is very low and the labor and amortization costs are high, the fourth trip is almost all profit, up to $1,000 or more per trip. It becomes a substantial economic benefit to be able to avoid the transaction in which the locomotive must be changed to the forward end of the train.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a control cab for use on a self-unloading train.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a control cab with proper controls for the remote operation of the locomotive of the train.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a control cab that fits conveniently beneath the conveyer structure on the discharge car of a self-unloading train.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a control cab that complies with federal requirements of safety.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.